What We Are Reading:
South Sudan president urges rebels to resume talks in independence day speech
Carl Odera / Reuters
South Sudan’s president on Wednesday called on rebels to resume peace talks as the country marked its third birthday with celebrations overshadowed by fighting that has killed thousands and brought it to the verge of famine.
Paradise Lost: Aerial Images of Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest
Chelsea Matiash / The Wall Street Journal
Deforestation of the region has seen a drop of about 73% since 2004, according to data compiled by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, and despite a 28% uptick in 2013, Brazil is close to its 2020 goal of reducing deforestation by 80 percent from 1990 levels.
Chelsea J. Carter / CNN
Even people who aren’t in the line of fire in Iraq feel the effects of the chaos that has engulfed the country since extremists attacked weeks ago.
Civilian Casualties Surge in Afghanistan Fighting, U.N. Says
Azam Ahmed / The New York Times
Kabul, Afghanistan — Driven by increased ground combat between insurgents and government forces, civilian casualties in Afghanistan surged 24 percent through the first half of the year to their highest levels since 2009, according to the United Nations, in a grim signal of the way the war here is changing from the same period a year ago.
New Khamenei Demands Make Tough Iranian Nuke Talks Even Tougher
John Hudson and Colum Lynch / The Foreign Policy Machine
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has laid out an unusually detailed set of demands for what he would accept in a nuclear deal, further complicating the high-stakes efforts to reach an agreement before a July 20 deadline.
North Korea fires missiles into the sea
CNN
North Korea fired two short-range missiles off the coast of the Korean Peninsula early Wednesday, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said.
CHINA, US DIFFER ON GLOBAL PLAN TO CUT EMISSIONS
Louise Watt / Associated Press
China and the United States took small steps toward their shared goal of fighting climate change on Wednesday, but the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 carbon emitters remain significantly apart over a wider global plan to cut emissions.
What We Are Watching:
Guinness Commercial: Empty Chair
ASP Recent Reports
ASP in Dallas: Climate Change and America’s National Security
Andrew Holland
On Monday and Tuesday, June 2 and 3, representatives of the American Security Project visited Dallas, Texas for a series of meetings, public events, and briefings on how climate change is affecting security, and how institutions in the region are planning for it.
On Our Flashpoint Blog
USIP: Iran Sanctions and What the U.S. Cedes in a Nuclear Deal
Theresa Shaffer
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) held a panel on July 8 to discuss the challenges of sanctions in the Iran nuclear talks.
3 Key Topics in Upcoming U.S.-China Economic Talks
Dan Day
For the 6th year, the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) will take place July 9-10th between key commerce and foreign policy officials from Beijing and Washington in an attempt to open up investment and trade opportunities between the world’s two largest economies.
Upcoming Events
What’s Next? Fostering the Next Generation of Energy Security Conference
September 30 @ 9:00AM – 4:30PM
The next steps in building a cleaner, more resilient energy system and economy will not be easy. The American Security Project intends to build on its years of research into energy security and climate policy by initiating a study into the next generation of energy policy. Join ASP and our panelists as we discuss the next generation of energy technology and climate policy.
The post What We Are Reading…July 9, 2014 appeared first on American Security Project.
